My first two/three days...

The flight to Argentina was the longest flight of my life. After waiting 5 hours in the airport, we boarded and then waited another hour to take off. The flight to Santiago, Chile was 10 hours, or 11 if you include the hour we waited before take-off. Thank goodness I got to sit next to Kelsey. Kelsey, Jessie, and I checked in together so we all sat in the same row, in the middle of the plane. The entertainment was great on the plane. I watched Shallow Hal, Everwood, Martian Child, and more! After arriving in Santiago, Chile at 6:30 am friday morning, we took a 1.5 hour flight to Argentina. People from Casa Holden, the pepperdine house, met us. There are 30 new students this semester and 30 ones returning for a 2nd semester. I feel like I already knew at least 8 of the new students before I got here, so that is good. Once in Argentina, we had a bbq and short orientation at the casa holden and then our families came to pick us up.

My family is really sweet. My mom held my hand to the taxi and then showed me around their 7th floor appartment about 6 long blocks from the casa holden. My room is small, but very nice. My family also has another student from Boston, not from the Pepperdine program staying with us. Her name is Kristen and she is also nice, but she seems to be gone more than I. She barely knows any spanish, which gives my confidence a boost. There are 2 bathrooms in our house, but 1 shower, so we all share the 1 shower. Later, my mom took me on a tour around her block to show me the internet place and the laundry place, ect. She held my hand the entire time. My parents really like talking to me and we are communicating really well. Dinner was ok, not the greatest. We had soupy mashed potatoes, bistec...but it looked like meat loaf, and salad. Fruit for dessert. I went out with people from Pepperdine after dinner at 11 pm. We met at casa holden and I took a taxi there. I hope eventually I can walk to casa holden at night, but my parents didn't want me to walk alone at night the first night i was there. I got back from being out at 1 am, by taxi, and accidently rang the doorbell because it looked like a light switch...woops. Taxi's here are really cheap. It cost me 5 pesos each way, which is less than 2 dollars.

Today we went on a bus tour of Buenos Aires. I have now seen all the historical sites that I was looking forward to....where Eva Peron, Evita, is buried and the balcony where Evita gave her speeches. Really cool. I'm getting my cell phone stuff figured out right now. I rented a cell phone from casa holden, but you need to buy a phone card and then activated it on your cell phone to be able to use it. Also, my house doesn't have internet, bummer. Kelseys does. Apparently neighboors do have it and their previous exchange students were able to use it, so i'm going to try that later. My mom's cousin is in town, so i'm hoping to call her up once my phone starts working.

That's all for now. :)